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Taiwan Leader Calls Off US Stopover as Trump Seeks Xi Summit

(Bloomberg) — Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te appeared to call off an overseas trip planned for next week after the Trump administration failed to greenlight his stopover in the US, amid concerns it could derail trade talks with China.

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Lai had previously intended to stop in New York on Aug. 4 and then Dallas 10 days later as part of a trip to diplomatic allies Paraguay, Guatemala and Belize. Planning for that trip, which was reported by Bloomberg News earlier this month but never publicly acknowledged, was thrown into flux late last week when Taiwanese officials couldn’t get their US counterparts to give the go ahead, according to people familiar with the matter.

When asked about the trip Monday, Lai’s office issued a public statement noting he needed to stay in Taiwan to focus on typhoon recovery work and tariff negotiations with the US, while saying he had no travel plans. A person familiar with the situation said Tuesday that Lai was hoping to go ahead with the trip later this year.

The change in Lai’s travel plans was also reported by the Financial Times and Reuters. Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said at a Tuesday briefing there had been no postponement, cancellation or US obstruction, and pledged to seek an appropriate time for Lai’s visit.

Earlier this month, Paraguay President Santiago Peña said at an investment forum that he was “eagerly and warmly” preparing to welcome Lai in August. Officials in Paraguay and Guatemala no longer expect Lai to visit next week, according to people familiar with the preparations for his visit.

Trump officials denied Lai permission to transit through New York after China raised objections with Washington about the visit, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the decision. It was unclear whether he was also blocked from stopping over in Dallas, the newspaper added.

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The US had mounting concerns Lai’s visit could disrupt trade negotiations with China and a potential summit with President Xi Jinping, according to people familiar with the matter.

The hesitation over Lai’s trip unnerved some officials in the US, as well as in Taipei, who fear President Donald Trump may concede too much to China as he seeks a meeting with Xi, according to the people. Bloomberg reported earlier that Trump’s team was reaching out to CEOs to join him on a possible trip to Beijing this year.

The rebuke will fan concerns that Washington’s position on the self-ruled democracy, which Beijing considers a part of its territory, is becoming a trade war bargaining chip. In an abrupt policy reversal, Trump already put on the negotiating table some tech curbs imposed on China over national security concerns.

“Trump’s decision to deny permission for President Lai to visit New York sends a dangerous signal: that the United States can be bullied by Beijing into silence on Taiwan,” said former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whose 2022 visit to Taipei sparked uproar.

“This is a victory for Xi,” she wrote on X. “Let us hope it is not indicative of a dangerous change in US policy.”

The White House didn’t reply to a request for comment. A State Department official said transits by high-level Taiwanese officials, including presidents, were fully consistent with longstanding US policy and practice, which hasn’t changed.

Trump said Tuesday that he’s not “seeking” a meeting with Xi, though said he’s considering going to China at the invitation of the Chinese president.

“I may go to China, but it would only be at the invitation of President Xi, which has been extended. Otherwise, no interest!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.

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The US could yet suggest an alternative timeframe and layover locations. Last year, the Taiwanese president pushed back a planned transit through Hawaii and Guam by several months following a Biden administration request to wait until after the US election, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Lai’s planned visit came at a delicate diplomatic moment. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng on Monday met in Stockholm for talks aimed at advancing a trade deal with ramifications for global markets. An extension of a tariff truce reached between both sides is expected and would help pave the way for a Trump-Xi meeting.

China, which has branded Lai a “separatist” and “parasite,” views Taiwan as the most sensitive issue in relations with other countries. It has increasingly opposed US interactions with Taiwanese leaders, often by staging large-scale military exercises surrounding the island following Pelosi’s trip to Taipei.

Putting Taiwan on the negotiating table with China “sends a dangerous message to Beijing,” said Laura Rosenberger, a former US diplomat who also chaired the American Institute in Taiwan until this year.

“At a time when Beijing is engaging in increasingly coercive behavior toward Taipei, the US needs to be sending a clear message of commitment to longstanding precedents, not allowing Beijing to once again move the goalposts,” she added.

Embattled Leader

Lai, who won last year’s presidential election with the lowest winning percentage since 2000, now risks looking weak at home and abroad. Last weekend, a failed attempt to unseat lawmakers handed the opposition more ammunition for its agenda, which includes forging closer ties with Beijing.

Adding to the uncertainty, Taiwan’s trade officials are currently in Washington for talks aimed at clinching a deal to avert a threatened 32% tariff.

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All of Taiwan’s sitting presidents since the 1990s have traveled to the US on stopovers en route to other destinations. While most visits passed without triggering heightened tensions, a trip by then-leader Lee Teng-hui to speak at Cornell University in 1995 sparked the so-called Third Strait Crisis, with China firing missiles into waters near the main island of Taiwan.

Stopover requests, on occasion, have been used as a way for US leaders to signal displeasure with Taiwan’s policy.

The most prominent example of that came in 2006, when then-US President George W. Bush scuttled Chen Shui-bian’s request to transit to Paraguay via either New York or San Francisco. That snub was taken as a sign his unofficial relationship with Washington had suffered a serious blow, after Chen upset the Bush administration with a series of pro-independence policies that risked provoking China.

Lai’s New York and Dallas stops would have been his first to continental US soil since he became president last year and Trump took power in January. His transits in Hawaii and Guam last December were followed by what Taipei described as China’s largest naval deployment in years along the first island chain, which also includes Japan and the Philippines.

–With assistance from Eric Martin and Hadriana Lowenkron.

(Adds comments from Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry. A previous version of this story corrected the attribution of comments in the fourth paragraph.)

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